Taster Cakes: How To Choose Your Wedding Cake Flavour When You Can't Eat Cake

Uh... What?

You can't eat cake? But you're human shaped.

Oh wait. Ok.

Artistic or Vintage?

I'm very excited to make a winter wonderland cake for my client. I met her while working at the Farmers Market and she has to be the most genuine, happy, excitable and giving gal.

Was that too much?

Who could possibly warrant such kind words from the kitchen bitch witch.

Well I'll tell ya the reasoning for my love for this gal.

She can't eat any of these cake. She's celiac. And she's the only celiac attending her wedding.

So rather than order a gluten-free cake (which I can't actually make; I can only make gluten-friendly goods as there is gluten in my kitchen, but I digress;) she is ordering a cake, of the gluten-full variety, for her fiancee and his family.

No, that's not Black Forest,
But it does have Kirsch

Doesn't that show just how much she loves her hubby? And his family?

Make me think of my love for my in-laws (which I don't call in-laws, cause I love them and saying in-law after everything is annoying exhausting.)

So how do you choose what cake to have when you can't eat them without risking your gut's happiness?

Order three cakelettes for family dinner with the to-be family and let them choose for you.

How nice, right?

This has appeared again.
My Grandma's fav.

She's already embracing all the German. 

Although, I don't think she gets how Germans work.

She picked up the cakes and with the exclamation: "That's too much cake!"

This is enough for 2 G-mans, I don't have the beer displayed.
That costs extra.
And is generally all gluten filled.

I laughed. 

And then I wondered if she knew what she was getting into.

I mean, what German doesn't like food?

Actually what human doesn't like food? 

I can't get enough.

Same with oxygen.

Orange Chocolate with my new frosting

Yeah... I haven't slept much.

Anyways, these 3 cakelettes are counted as my seventh cake.

It's July.

I'm doing alright, I guess.

Blue Cakelette: Ombre Petite Cakes for Mother's Day

Mother's Day was May 10th.

My Mom is about four and a half hour drive away.

It's hard to get there on a weekend. With cake.

Also there's a no gluten thing... I don't get it.

I get it if you're celiac, or trying to be more healthy, but no gluten?

How can you deny this little guy?!

May I introduce you to the Cakelette. Or Petite Cake, but I like Cakelette. 

I think it'll be my substitute for the cupcake.

Not that cupcakes can never happen; they are just over done. 

That's right, Cupcake, you're on your way out.

These were made for the ladies at my work. It had to be later since one only comes in later in the week.

Three inch round chocolate cake with dulce de leche and buttercream. It's splittable between two people, but then you start to eat it and it isn't sharable anymore.

The ombre effect is actually very simple, easy and looks very fancy.

If you need a video to see how click here. Also NicolaBakes is very cute.

Nicola does a cute, simple ringed fringe design on her tutorial, but I figured since this cake is a little over 3 inches across it would look too busy with the texture.

Also I had to top it with a tiny blossom.

Boop!

If you want to learn more about gumpaste flowers I recommend Craftsy. Especially Maggie Austin's Sugar Berries, Leaves & Blossoms. That's what I'm practicing right now. 

Enough free advertising.

Back to what this was actually for...

Happy Mother's Day to all the great mothers out there.

I love you, Mom.

Gold Drama Cake: Sequins & So Much More

When you were turning 15 didn't you want a fancy grown up party with a fancy cake?

With all the sugar you could handle?

I'm not even sure I had a 15th birthday party. Last one I can remember is when I was turning 11. Doesn't mean I didn't want it though.

I was quite happy doing this cake. It's what every girl should get for her birthday. Brownie cake with cookie dough and German buttercream.

If you've never had German buttercream I feel for you. It's amazing. Custard base, so it tastes like ice cream. I could just eat it with a spoon.

Although German buttercream and fondant don't really get along I learned. It's like trying to put fondant on a cake covered in whip cream. Not so much with the cooperation and more with the hole having due to weight...

But that's ok. It's a lesson learned and it got covered with quins anyways. And gold luster. Lots of gold luster.

Another lesson: Gold luster does not cover absolutely. Some colour will show through, but don't worry, it looks good, and gives it some more character to the metallic sheen.

Also, don't spend hours trying to do full coverage, it's not worth it. And it makes your not-sticking-on-so-well-fondant wet and less happy.

This is the last cake that will have homemade fondant. Homemade fondant just isn't working. I really wanted it to work, made many many batches and cannot figure out how to make a nice fondant that covers cakes in that nice pretty flawless way.

Gumpaste and I have made friends, however.

Tulips and roses aren't a classic combination, I know, but I like the drama of it all.

I decided not to do any foliage, although a rose leaf or two would not pull away from the flowers, this cake was full enough.

Parrot tulips are very dramatic. They come in all sorts of colours, but this sunburst kinda colour stole my heart. And I had real life inspiration.

Can you tell the difference between the gumpaste and real flowers?

The main give away for me was the stamens.

...I have to work on that.

Additional lesson learned: colour the petals before attaching them to the stamens. Everything became orangey-red. 

I think I've leveled up though. Can I determine that? (Insert Zelda music here.)

So this was cake 5 of 12. It's the end of March and I have 7 cakes to do in 9 months.

Seems like lots of time, right? But I've written off summer. My place gets insanely warm and I usually feel like dying, not baking, during that time.

I do have 2 cakes to be done toward the end of the year. At least I think I do. Things haven't been finalized yet. 

And I'm hoping I can do a big cake for an event in early May. Really really hoping. Cause it would be amazing. And Big. Really BIG.

But don't worry. I'll be doing things in the in between time. And I'll post things here, even if they aren't all cake related.

That is... If you care. If you're reading this... Whomever you are.

Are you just looking for some pretty pictures? 

I can't blame you for that.

In parting, my own personal grumpy cat says, "Leave."

"I was grumpy before Tartar Sauce."
~Boroboro

Lived Long & Prospered: A Tribute to a Great Man

I wasn't sure if I could do this cake.

It's a little late I guess... But it was hard to get past the bad and get it done.

A tragic thing happen to the geek world.

Leonard Nimoy has passed away.

Most know him now as the Original Spock. I like to think of him as the Grandfather of all Geekdom. I'm certain there are others that feel that way too.

He was genuine, intelligent, hard working, giving, and loving. He was what all idols should be. He thanked his fans, and meant it.

This mural is spray painted on Edmonton's Free Art Wall by AJ A Louden (find CBC's article and photo here.) I wish I could personally thank Louden for this beautiful tribute to a legend.

I wasn't as much on the ball and got to it later; luckily it was still up.

In an interview Leonard Nimoy said his favourite meal was a good steak and a blueberry pie (sounds like a great meal.) Sorry Mr. Nimoy, cake isn't very pie-like, but I did put blueberries in it.

If you haven't noticed the decorations on the cake look a little 3Dish. That's because they are all chocolate. This is something I've done quite a bit before, but this cake was the first, and possibly the last, time I'll paint a chocolate portrait. It turned out ok, but it is extremely difficult to get a solid flesh-tone colour with chocolate wafers.

But here is how to do a basic pattern.

First: find an image, the simpler, the better (2 colour)
Second: Print it off to appropriate size for your item (smaller for cupcake, watch for height of cake, etc.) Be sure to flip any images with script or specific directionality)
Third: Tape onto a piece of wax paper.

Wax paper is your friend.

Then the fun begins.

Easiest way to do this is to melt your coloured chocolate wafers in a piping bag. Zap in the microwave in 20 second intervals and mush the bag to check for meltiness and/or mix colours together.

Then you want to pipe on your first colour.

This is the front most colour, the first one you want to make sure you can see. Remember the side on the wax paper is the front of your image, so you need to layer your colour accordingly.

Only pipe a small amount at a time.

Then take a toothpick and push the chocolate to the edges to get full coverage. If you get to a point where your chocolate is becoming solid too quickly you'll need to zap your piping bag for a few seconds.

Get all the corners. Wipe your toothpick off regularly to avoid goop build up.

If you have a few stray strings of chocolate or a mistake wait until the chocolate is just dry (but not hard) and use the toothpick to scrape off the unwanted chocolate.

Once you get your first colour all done (and let it dry a little bit) it's time to outline and flood with your second colour. I didn't have a drawn out border for this one so I just freehanded.

Overlap your chocolate so you don't have hole or bubbles.

Then you can smooth out the back. This in only necessary if you're applying your chocolate image onto a cake or something with a smooth surface.

To dry your piece you'll want to consider the shape of the surface you'll be placing it on.

Since my cake is round I used the same cake pan to dry the piece.

Paper is used to support the piece.

These don't take long to dry. The thicker it is the longer I'd leave it to dry (10-20 minutes is usually long enough.) These can be made ahead of time and kept in a cool, dark place (away from sunlight.) I've even done them months ahead of time and store them in a tupperware in the freezer.

I covered the cake in a mixture of fondant and modeling chocolate (about 3:1) so that I could push the chocolate images into the cake without having the fondant get crackily. 

And I splattered the cake with some white food colouring. Just dip my cake paintbrush in and flick it with my finger. Then I painted some shiny stars and made some comets and constellations.

To apply the decorations I used more melted chocolate and pushed the image onto the cake. You'll need to hold it onto the cake for about 10 seconds, so if you have hot hands be careful.

If you're using your decorations on cupcakes with icing you can just place them on the icing.

Once you have all the decorations on your cake all pretty you can be a dork and take pictures with your creation.

(My shirt colour was not deliberate.)

Also you can take your cake to the nerd gathering at the pub. Then some comic nerd unwanted affection might happen.

(Sorry Mr. Nimoy)

This is in no way a the best tribute given to Leonard Nimoy, but it's the one I could give.

You will be missed, Leonard.

Two Beautiful Women: A Special Tea Time Cake

I feel like the luckiest girl alive.

I have two Grandmothers. Well, one Grandma and one Oma.

They are 92 years old. Born a few weeks apart, a large distance apart, and they are great friends. 

This was a tea party for my Grandma. She is a lucky Valentine's Birthday Lady. I believe that means she was born with an extraordinary amount of love. She is the most lovely and giving woman I could ever know. She can make you feel comfortable and wanted with a smile, and her eyes always twinkle with joy and laughter. She is a wife of 62 years, a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. She is the girl that's the first to befriend you, embrace you, and make you part of the family. I'm sure she was the school ambassador, if there were such things then. I guess they call these kinds the Pillar of the Community, but I feel that falls short.

My Oma is just as amazing, but in a different kind of way. She is straight forward. She says what she thinks and she gives no apologies for it. She is independant, stubborn... A true vrouw. When I called her to invite her to the party she says, "Oh Sarah. I haven't heard from you in ages. What's wrong with you?" (I'm bad at keeping in touch with people. When I want to call them I'm either at work or it's too late to politely call.) She never ceases to amaze me. She is legally blind, has worn hearing aids for as long as I can remember, and has lived alone for almost as long. And she hates it when people try to assist her constantly. She is proud, but humble enough to ask for help when she needs it.

But I digress. You're not really here to read about my gushing over my Grandmothers.

You're here to listen to me brag about cake. And flowers. And laugh about my casualty.

Apparently floral wire is irresistible to cats. Makes them jump up on tables and pull a resting gumpaste flower onto the floor where it go crash.

I wasn't impressed. But I didn't want the flower to go to waste.

So it sat on the cake stand; at the base of the cake. German Chocolate Cake with classic Pecan Coconut frosting. That frosting is a family favourite. It's between all those layers, and dolloped on top. The cream cheese honey frosting was really only for show. Naked cake needs some thick buttercream to be smeared all over it. It's a sexy cake like that.

My Grandma loved it. She doesn't like chocolate, so this was a White Chocolate cake. With flowers. One that my Grandma took home in a little vase I got for her. My very first gumpaste flowers. Another look at those shall we?

I'm pretty happy with them. Some minor things I'd like to add for next time, but I don't think anyone noticed the calyx was missing. Foliage wasn't needed for this cake, the flowers were more than enough.

These are fragile beast though. The two in the back cracked and chipped quite a bit. Only a small piece cracked off the light pink one. If you're going to make gumpaste flowers, make sure you pack them well, but not tight. Make sure they don't touch anything. I mean anything. Each other, floral tape, a table, some feathers...

Ok, I'm exaggerating. They aren't that fragile, but you need to be careful when handling them.

But don't worry we didn't just eat cake. Cookies, tortilla rolls, cucumber sandwiches, cake pops, veggies and chocolates were on the spread. You can guess what the kids ate and what the adults had.

Everyone visited, drank tea, coffee and juice, and visited some more. My Aunt was awesome and brought the Valentines my Grandma collected over the years.

Sixty-two years worth of Valentines, from her children, friends, and my Grandpa. Sixty-two years, starting in 1953, the first Valentine's Day they shared as Husband and Wife.

They didn't sit together for the Tea Party, which was a rare thing. We don't have many pictures where they are separated, or not holding hands, or something along those lines.

They are still in as much Love as they were when they were first married.

If not more.

Happy Valentine's everyone.